I”m rarely shocked, but an article appearing in Wednesday”s Press Democrat made my jaw drop and my stomach turn.
The article by Paul Payne stated, “The former employees of Valley View Skilled Nursing facility on North Dora Street (in Ukiah) were arrested last week and charged with misdemeanor elder abuse in the incident that involved coating seven patients from head to foot as part of an apparent gag ? The purpose was to make the patients ?slippery” for other employees, according to state officials.””
In all, six people are facing criminal charges.
Good.
What is unfathomable, in my opinion, is not one, but six people, failed to recognize they were abusing human beings. Additionally, I cannot imagine anyone who would find the action amusing.
“A company spokesman said the employees, all certified nursing assistants, were fired.”
Four employees applied the ointment and two failed to report the abuse.
The nursing home reported the action to state authorities and an investigation followed.
The company acted immediately and took “the most severe action possible.”
I would like to introduce those involved: Jenny Bido, 26, Christina Guerrero 30, Jared Buckley, 29, Jennifer Burton, 33, Kathleen Phillips, 23, and Monica Smith, 51.
I sincerely wonder how this gang would feel if their loved one was mistreated this way.
The action also begs the question, what led up to this? What inspires a conversation and a subsequent action so horrendous?
When I was 18, I worked as a certified nurse”s aide for a huge institutional geriatric hospital in Massachusetts. I worked on the Alzheimer”s floor. It was a tough job. Many people would mistake me for a daughter, granddaughter, niece or long-lost friend. It was emotionally taxing.
As sterile as the place seemed, the staff genuinely cared and maintained excellent standards to ensure the residents” comfort. After all, we were dealing with human beings who were already suffering. The physical ailments were a fraction of the pain. Some residents” families didn”t visit anymore. Some residents didn”t remember loved ones who visited and would occasionally cry out for them after they left. There were sweet people, angry people and many foiled escape attempts made by people who, “just wanted to go home.”
It was our responsibility to provide the highest quality of life. Sometimes this meant singing residents to sleep, reading to them, pretending to take them to a restaurant at meal time and even going along with their perceptions about our identities.
I wasn”t too bothered by being called “Jo Jo,” because she was Edna”s favorite niece.
I knew Susan liked to go to the solarium and look out the window for an hour a day. She couldn”t speak, but she pointed at the birds, held my hand and smiled.
I treated the residents as I would want others to treat the people I cared about.
When I started working there, a nurse handed me a small cardboard box. She said, “Imagine filling this box with everything you”ll need for the rest of your life, leaving the home you”re familiar with and sharing a room with a stranger.”
That would certainly be a tough pill to swallow. I remembered that.
I”m not blowing my own horn here, but I suspect, even at 18, nobody would have to instruct me not to slather ointment on the residents and treat them as though they were not human beings.
I am simply appalled by the behavior and I cannot find language powerful enough to describe my disgust.
“Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.”
? Albert Schweitzer
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee news editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 Ext. 32.
